Section: Naruto
Genre: Supernatural, Romance
Pairing: male OC X (Surprise) male
Summary: A normal person from the real world dies and ends up in the world of Naruto or better known as the nightmarish world full of death and destruction.
Or
When a person is cursed to be Naruto's twin only because it turned out that his lover was someone from the Naruto world.
Warning: Slash (Yaoi, Boy X Boy), Mentions of rape, Dark themes, OC with skewed morals and questionable sanity

Chapter Twenty-Three – Kakashi

Things just kept going from bad to worse, Kakashi found as he wearily sat down in his couch in his surprisingly still standing apartment. He tiredly ran his hand down his face and leant back, head tilting to stare blankly up at the ceiling. No trace of Minori was found beyond confirming that he had been present in that alley. Worse yet, was the fact that Orochimaru's scent was also present there before he had made his way out of the village, during his escape.

The only thing they had been able to gather was that something had happened in that alley that had led to the death of an unaccountable number of civilians – for now that was, until the corps would be able to finish their assessment (the scene was too gruesome to make much of anything). Minori and Orochimaru had been there. Unfortunately, Minori's scent ended there while Orochimaru's left the village's borders.

Anything could have happened and until they could identify the remains from the alley, they could not determine or even speculate on what could have happened to his genin.

"We need to have a talk," Pakkun said from where he was scratching himself with his hind leg. The little nin dog had decided to accompany Kakashi to the apartment instead of dispelling himself.

"Can't this wait for tomorrow?" Kakashi asked tiredly without looking at his ninken.

"Considering everything, normally I'd say 'yes' but it's about your pups."

Surprised and confused, Kakashi straightened and gave the dog a questioning look. "Pups? I have a feeling you don't mean Minori."

"No." Pakkun straightened and jumped on the couch to sit beside his partner. "Look, I'm going to be frank: you need to have a serious talk with your pups. Especially Naruto."

Kakashi furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

"I know you've been taking things as they come with your team but you need to have a serious talk with them. It's about what happened when we went after the One-tail…"

The hastily made team consisting of Naruto, Shikamaru and Shino followed Pakkun as he tracked the scent trail left behind by Sasuke and the Suna nin, Gaara. Behind them, the sound of explosions and battle started to become quieter and quieter the farther they ran from the centre of the invasion. It was a good thing that the three genins still had enough chakra after taking part in the exams. Shino was the one most prepared for battle since he had not even had to fight in his match after his opponent had forfeited before the start of their battle. Though understandably miffed, Shino at least found out the reason behind his opponent's hasty forfeit. Now though, all three genins, whether ready or not, had to find their wayward fellow genin before he got himself killed, believing that he was still fighting in the tournament.

"There's a squad after our tail," Pakkun informed them well after they had left the stadium behind them. "We need to take care of them before we find Sasuke or we'll risk being surrounded."

"Right, then maybe we should – " Shikamaru started before he was cut off abruptly.

"SCREW THIS! NO WAY IS SASUKE GONNA BEAT ME! I'M GOING AFTER HIM! YOU GUYS CAN TAKE CARE OF THIS!" Naruto shouted before he hastened his pace and ran ahead, leaving behind his baffled, temporary teammates.

"Wha – NARUTO!"

"Naruto abandoned his teammates!?" Kakashi asked, aghast.

"Yes," Pakkun replied grimly. "And not because he was worried for Sasuke either. It was more because of petty jealousy."

"Shit." Kakashi leaned his elbows on his knees and exhaled tiredly.

"And there's more."

"…Great. What else happened?"

Pakkun put a paw comfortingly on his summoner's knee before he continued. "We had to take care of the squad after us before we could continue and that slowed us down. When we did manage to catch up –"

"What the hell are you doing, Naruto!? This is my match!" The shout was the first thing they heard before they reached their fellow Konoha genins. When they were finally close enough to see what was happening, they found the Uchiha dodging furious attacks from a ballistic Gaara, his right arm broken and the other holding Naruto's jacket to drag him away from attacks while said blond tried to break away from his hold.

Shikamaru, Shino and Pakkun immediately joined the two, Pakkun jumping on the Uchiha to fling him forward and away from a sand attack coming from behind, while Shikamaru and Shino both grabbed Naruto and dragged him to safety.

"Calm down, pup. It's not your match anymore," Pakkun informed the incensed Uchiha when the boy glanced at the three new arrival in confusion.

"Pakkun…? What do you mean?" Sasuke furrowed his brows.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed. "Damn it, Naruto, stop struggling!"

"LET ME GO! I'M GOING TO PROVE I'M BETTER THAN THE BASTARD!"

"You need to calm down," Shino said, his voice calm as those of his clan tended to be even in trying situations, though a degree of frustration leaked through his tone. "Why? Because this is not our fight anymore."

"What's going on?" Sasuke immediately questioned, the five dodging quickly one of Gaara's attacks.

"Suna and Oto are invading Konoha," Pakkun informed hastily. "This is not the chuunin exams anymore."

"We should leave this to a more qualified shinobi and go evacuate the civilians as according to protocol," Shikamaru added.

"Damn it," Sasuke cursed but nodded, clearly displeased but also knowing that he could not go against orders.

"SCREW THIS!" Naruto shouted and, in his struggles, he accidentally elbowed Shino in the nose. Shino stumbled back, letting go of Naruto while his hand raised to gingerly assess the damage. Shikamaru, in surprise, loosened his hold on the blond who did not waste any time and flung himself at Gaara.

"Damn it!" Shikamaru cursed.

"Shit!" Sasuke added as he pushed Shino from the path of a kunai coming from their back. As one they turned and found Kankuro and Temari of Suna standing opposite them, their weapons out and ready for battle.

"This is a problem," Shino commented through his broken nose.

"He injured his teammate and disobeyed orders?" Kakashi asked incredulously. And yet a part of him was not overly surprised. Naruto had shown clear sign of disregard for the rules and the chain of commands; after the Forest of Death, this had become even clearer. The blond had trouble followingly orders usually, but he also tended to obey Kakashi when they were on missions. Unfortunately, that was not the case when those his age were concerned; he tended to think he knew better than the others, or maybe it was his need to prove himself that made him react this way.

Minori and Sasuke had found that not only they were usually on the same wavelength but also their personalities tended to be the opposite of the blond's enthusiastic one. Because of this, those two worked well together and they made for a good team during missions. Unfortunately, that also meant that Naruto was usually excluded and because of his tendency to jump in in fights without thinking, his other two teammates had had to work around him, which most of the times meant completing missions without Naruto's involvement or wasting time making sure the blond did not botch their missions.

This might have led to some feeling of inadequacy in Naruto and this had in turn led to him trying harder to prove himself. Unfortunately, most of the time, his enthusiasm had negative impacts on the missions. His rivalry with Sasuke and having his little brother proving to be a better shinobi than him did not really help; instead, both fuelled his jealousy and led to him making even more mistakes.

Kakashi had thought that the chuunin exams would help with this since it was not only about team efforts but also individual abilities. Unfortunately, because of the invasion, it would seem like things had become even worst instead of making things better.

"What happened next?" Kakashi asked in trepidation. Now he knew that he should have asked for details earlier instead of just asking for the basics when his students had come back with Pakkun after the invasion.

"We had no other choice but to fight," Pakkun informed. "Shikamaru and Shino took care of the other two Suna nins while Sasuke agreed to support Naruto against Gaara."

"He agreed?" Kakashi asked in slight surprise. It was a surprise after all: the Sasuke he knew would not accept to be relegated to merely support and would prefer to be in the thick of things. He was much like Naruto in that.

"Trust me, I was just as surprised as you," Pakkun commented wryly. "But when I asked him, you know what he said?"

"What?"

"He knew it'd do more harm than good, trying to fight alongside Naruto. Apparently, he got his arm broken when Naruto jumped in his fight earlier without a regard for his teammate's safety. Sasuke thought he'd do more damage doing sneak attacks while Naruto kept Gaara occupied. And this way Naruto would not get distracted trying to fight Sasuke."

There was a long pause after this.

"Well, shit." Kakashi finally concluded, tone flat.

AN: Well, I did say I've been really inspired lately. So here's another quick update.

This chapter serves as a way to show how Minori's involvement in the plot has influenced both Sasuke and Naruto greatly. Additionally, Sasuke - because of Minori's seal - was not affected by Orochimaru's Curse Seal. You can take his actions and reactions any way you want. Naruto, on the other hand, is always trying to prove himself - and because of how Minori and Sasuke act towards him (treating him like an idiot and unable to contribute in any way) - he tries harder but this leads to him making more mistakes and being so single-minded that he does not take notice of his teammates' safety.

Next Chapter will be Sasuke's POV. We're nearing a time skip.

Anyway. Leave behind a review and tell me what you think.

Leight